Topkapi Palace
Four centuries of Ottoman sultans, their treasury and their harem, on the headland above the Bosphorus.
Duration
3 hrs – 4 hrs
Best time
At opening
Open
Closed Tuesday
Entry price
55 EUR
Topkapi was the residence of the Ottoman sultans from 1465 to 1856, and it is not conceived like a European palace: it is a sequence of four increasingly closed courtyards, each entered through a gate, and power was measured by how many courtyards you were allowed to pass.
The treasury holds the Topkapi dagger and the Spoonmaker's diamond, eighty-six carats. The harem, where up to several hundred people lived, needs a separate ticket — it is the most interesting part, and many people miss it at the desk.
Getting there
At the tip of Sultanahmet, behind Hagia Sophia. Tram T1, Gülhane or Sultanahmet stop.
What the price covers
foreign visitor entry
Rules on site
Closed on Tuesday. The harem costs extra on top of the main ticket and is bought at the same time: coming back for it later means queueing to get in all over again.
Checked on 28 August 2026 at Topkapi Palace — entrance fees 2026
Other places in Istanbul
Blue MosqueSix minarets and twenty thousand Iznik tiles, still in use as a place of worship.
Hagia SophiaByzantine basilica, then mosque, then museum, then mosque again: fifteen hundred years of history under one dome.
- Basilica CisternThree hundred and thirty-six columns sunk beneath the city, and two Medusa heads set upside down.